ex-Deutsche Bank trader Bittar and nine others charged over rate rigging

Britain charges ex-Deutsche trader Bittar, nine others over rate rigging

From Reuters –

“Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said on Friday it would charge former Deutsche Bank star trader Christian Bittar and nine others in a new phase of a global investigation into alleged benchmark interest rate rigging.

The 10 individuals will face the first criminal proceedings for alleged manipulation of Euribor benchmark interest rates, part of a global investigation that has already led to big financial institutions being fined billions of dollars and 22 men being charged.

The traders are all former or current employees of Deutsche Bank or Barclays and the SFO said it planned to file further criminal charges in due course.”

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Bank of England says it will map out move to Libor alternative in 2016

From Reuters –

“The Bank of England will spell out next year how markets can migrate to a new "risk-free" interest rate benchmark after banks were fined billions of dollars for trying to rig Libor, the existing benchmark, a senior BoE official said on Wednesday.

Chris Salmon, the BoE's executive director for markets, said Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, a benchmark for interest rates that banks charge each other, remains too prevalent.

Formerly overseen by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), Libor rates have come under scrutiny after a number of traders were accused of colluding to rig the rate. The rates are calculated through an "honor system" in which a panel of banks report their estimated costs of borrowing from each other in different currencies over differing periods.”

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`I've Got My Wizards Hat On' What Broker Said about Libor Moves

From Bloomberg Business -

“A former trader at UBS Group AG asked a broker at RP Martin Holdings Ltd. for help moving Libor because he’d "heard you knew magic."

Mirhat Alykulov, who worked with Tom Hayes at UBS in Tokyo, sent a message in February 2009 asking RP Martin’s Jim Gilmour for a higher six-month Libor rate. The message was shown to jurors by prosecutors at a trial of half a dozen brokers, including Gilmour, accused of helping Hayes manipulate benchmark rates.

"Yes I’ve got my wizards hat on today," Gilmour joked, after agreeing to try to push the rate higher.”

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